Goldman Sachs joins gold rush on Wall Street

Lloyd Blankfein, the investment bank’s chief executive, said that Goldman had put in a “solid performance”JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

Goldman Sachs has delivered a 47 per cent jump in third-quarter profits, continuing a strong run of results from the big Wall Street banks.

The strength of the American investment bank’s trading powerhouse allowed it to set aside more than $3 billion to pay staff bonuses.

Goldman reported net earnings of $2.1 billion for the three months to the end of September, helped by a 57 per cent annual rise in market-making revenues to $2.7 billion, offsetting a small decline in investment banking income for the period.

Fixed-income, currencies and commodities, traditionally the biggest driver of the bank’s earnings, rose by 34 per cent to $1.96 billion compared with the third quarter of 2015 and increased by nearly half when accounting gains included in last…